Peter Turchi - Maps of the creative process and designs for life

I write for myself and for my friends, and I write to ease the passing of time.

-Jorge Luis Borges (The Book of Sand)

Peter Turchi takes the art and act of writing as an irresistible analog for the art and the act of living. His work is part of a long tradition of fascination with processes of writers and he is among the masters at relating that process in a way that reaches all domains of society. For anyone who has ever thought about writing - the craft of it, its centrality in the human experience, its analog for life itself - this conversation is for you.

When I reached out to Peter to be on Origins, he asked if I was sure he was a fit to the show. There was never a doubt in my mind. Peter's subjects span domains; they are universal.

In his altogether engaging Maps of the Imaginations: The Writer as Cartographer he reveals remarkable similarities between mapmaking, that inherently universal attempt to represent humanity's ability to perceive, and the art of writing fiction--it is one of the most creative treatises on the craft of writing in the 21st century.

He extended his uncanny ability to find connections between writing and the stuff of our lives in A Muse and a Maze, delving into the connection between writing and puzzle-making, games, and puzzle-solving.

He is the author of six books and countless short stories. His work has appeared in, among others, The Huffington Post, Fiction Writers Review, and the Alaska Quarterly Review. Peter is the deserving recipient of literary awards too many to list here and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim.

Peter is the graduate of the MFA Program at the University of Arizona, long-time director of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina. He currently teaches creative writing at the University of Houston.